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Loading ...Neff: Bye, bye, Bush
Time to say bye, bye to George W. Bush.
As he leaves for Texas, do you think he’s thinking, “Mission accomplished”?
As I write this, it’s a rare gloomy day on the Florida coast — rainy, overcast and chilly (feel sorry for me with temperatures in the 60s?) — but I’m feeling chirpy as I tear off one of the final pages in my “2008 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar.” I’m coming out of an eight-year hangover.The morning-after began Nov. 8, 2000. I remember the wild night before. I was with a GLBT newsweekly in Chicago. We held the paper for the election results and were joyfully about to ship to the printer with a “Gore wins” headline when the news service took Florida back. Eventually we sadly published a “Gore wins popular vote, loses White House” headline. You know the history.
That hangover set in the next day, a bad one.
I find it fitting the W. era began as it did — spoiled from the start, like buying bad milk from the store as opposed to letting it curdle in the fridge. Of course, whether soured from the start or soured over time, there’s still the stink.
Got Bush?
Got troubles.
He certainly was not an innocuous, ineffective president: two wars and untold numbers of dead, a national campaign of fear and prejudice, incidents of torture and a raid on the U.S. bank of constitutional rights.
During a Jan. 12 press conference, a reporter asked Bush about mistakes made and history’s take on the president.
Bush replied, “I think historians will look back and they’ll be able to have a better look at mistakes after some time has passed.… There is no such thing as short-term history. I don’t think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration until time has passed: Where … did a president’s decisions have the impact that he thought they would, or he thought they would, over time? Or how did this president compare to future presidents, given a set of circumstances that may be similar or not similar?”
Keep this in mind when you think of Bush’s record on GLBT issues. He caused a lot of harm in international and domestic arenas, but when it comes to GLBT issues, Bush seems impotent in hindsight.
He endorsed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, but the campaign never got beyond an engagement.
When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalized same-sex marriage in its state, the president said, “Today’s decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court violates this important principle. I will work with congressional leaders and others to do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.”
That pledge didn’t amount to much besides a lot of blustery rhetoric and money-changing.
He opposed anti-discrimination legislation protecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders and expanding hate crimes legislation, but never had to prove it because Congress never sent him a bill on either.
He supported the ban against gays and lesbians serving openly in the Armed Forces, but never really took action to defend the policy — for failure of Congress to act to repeal it.
If history shows Bush to have any lasting impact on GLBT issues, it may be in his abstinence-only education policies and appointments to the bench. Appeals Court Judge Jay Bybee compared discrimination against gays to discrimination against “the illiterate, … licenses cosmeticians, the tall, the sort, persons with male pattern baldness…” and Appellate Judge Michael McConnell wrote the brief defending the Boy Scouts of America’s ban against gays.
But mostly, in eight years, the president took some anti-gay stands, made some anti-gay statements, inspired some right-wing lunacies and occasionally angered many in the middle and on the left. History will show that Bush’s opposition to GLBT civil rights measures have had little real impact.
It’s like he was shooting blanks.
And now he can ride off to Texas to resume playing cowboy.
Well, so long pardner.
Dubyah’s appointees to the Federal bench, if they do as they’re expected to do, will collectively do more to set back the cause of glbt equality and inclusion than any single group in this country’s history.
I feel that Bush did as little as posibal for the gay, leabian, bisexual, and trangrnder people,if not make our lifes alittle worse.
But my problem is we have oboma for our president, and hes not going to change shit! he claims the us will get better but than tells the people that the “dont ask dont tell” policy is wrong. im sorry but as soon as i recive my masters im out of the states. ~M!k3L
Lisa,
We had a very small amount of light snow in the DC metropolitan area today with no real accumulation at all. However, your 60F day would feel like springtime to me right now.
George Bush wasted our country’s time and money on his own ego. He chose to turn his back on the American people to create chaos in other countries. He wasted our resources and let our economy fall that much quicker into the hole our economy is at this time. While many people lost their jobs and homes, he lost nothing. He made the rich richer,and the poor destitute. The middle class now struggles to maintain. Now, wehave to continue to support him with our tax dollars as an ex president.
No offense Mikel but… you actually expect to get a Masters with that kind of grammar and spelling comprehension?
Oh Lord! What a mornin’
When the Busch be gone for GOOD!
Hallelujah!
If I NEVER hear or see Bush ever again, it’ll be too soon. So long and fare-the-well! Ding Dong The Bush Is Gone!
I was never so happy as to see that
helicopter fly him to the airport
and to that flight back to Texas!
That’s where he belongs!
Now he’s going to write a book!
He’s never even read a book.
Good riddance!
I feel you, Lisa…I moved from New Jersey to Florida 16 days ago, and today I felt “chilly.” I wanted to slap myself back to reality haha.
Farewell, Bush. We won’t mourn you.
Lisa,
I also find it fitting that Bush’s presidency began the way it did.
However, as a Michigan native whose primary vote was given to a person who took his name off of our primary ballot, it is my firm belief that the Obama presidency is similar in that regard.
I can’t help but feel as though you underestimate the impact Bush has had on the LGBT community. Throughout his Presidency he created an atmosphere where the Christian Right could flourish, opening doors for them and others to launch attacks against the gay community – and that’s before you consider the appointments he made that will hinder the battle for gay rights.
Bush is an ignorant man entirely lacking in character and intellect. He was an impotent President. However, in his ignorance he managed to create an atmosphere that encouraged discrimination, that embraced hatred, that made bigotry socially acceptable. And while he may not have done much directly to cause lasting harm to the gay community, he was surrounded by people who have done more than their fair share of damage.
There are only two things I can say about Bush that are even remotely positive. In the aftermath of September 11th he gave a number of rousing speeches that offered some reassurance to the American people and to the world. Of course, credit for those really goes to his speechwriters, and he demonstrated little follow-through there as well. The other area where he could be praised is in his record in Africa, where he did do a lot to help fight both AIDS and poverty, but frankly his actions there were far from exceptional. Rather, it was the least the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth could do to help some of the poorest countries.
In the end, the world is a better place now Bush is gone. His legacy, particularly with regards to the gay community, will live on for many, many years, however.
Just think Clinton will be remembered for “oral sex is not sex”.
But it will be Bush that will be remembered for hetro “but sex is not sex.” How fitting.
Don’t think so? Just google Bush abstinence-only education policies failure and see what you come up with. I am still trying to pry myself off the floor over the kids that took part in the abstinence-only education (you know the ones that only lasted for 18-month that signed “Bush’s” virgin’s agreement) who didn’t know “that sex feels good”!